Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reflects a sincere desire to walk closely with Jesus and to be fully free from the influences of your life before you knew Him, and that is a good and right desire. The Scripture you are standing on is true, when the Son sets you free you are free indeed, as Jesus says in John 8:36, and the Lord is able to deliver and to keep you, as Paul declares in 2 Timothy 4:18 that the Lord will rescue from every evil attack and preserve for His heavenly kingdom.
It is important to remember that healing and restoration with the Lord often happen in different ways. In the Gospels there is an account where Jesus healed a blind man gradually, first partially and then fully, and it is the only recorded miracle of that kind. That shows us that God does not always work instantly. Sometimes His healing is immediate, sometimes it comes through a process over time, and sometimes it works through the natural processes He has built into our bodies and minds. All healing is from Him, whether it is physical, emotional, or mental. He can heal memories and wounds and scars on the inside even as He works on the outside. The prophet Isaiah foretold that He would bear our infirmities and sicknesses, and Matthew connects that prophecy to the healing ministry of Jesus, which includes both spiritual and physical restoration.
We also do not fully understand why some are healed quickly and others walk through a longer process, and why some prayers for healing are answered differently than we expect. Even the apostle Paul prayed repeatedly about his thorn in the flesh and the Lord chose not to remove it. This teaches us not to assume that a lack of immediate deliverance or healing means there is hidden sin or a lack of faith. Those are unbiblical and hurtful ideas that are like the counsel of Job's comforters. God is sovereign, He loves you, and He is in the business of restoration, bringing beauty out of what sin and brokenness have damaged.
In light of that, I join you in asking the Lord to complete His work of deliverance from past associations that were not of Him, and to break any lingering oppression or pattern of thinking that came from that season. I pray that He will surround you with faithful people who will walk with you in truth and love and help you grow in stability and maturity in Christ.
Concerning your extended family members and the very serious rumors you mentioned, it is right to pray for truth to come to light and for the protection of any who may be vulnerable. God sees what is hidden and He is just. Rather than living in suspicion, pray that if there is any actual wrongdoing it would be exposed through proper and lawful means and that those who might be harmed would be rescued and protected. At the same time ask the Lord to guard your own heart from fear and from envy or accusation, trusting the promise in Isaiah 54:17 that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and resting in His ability to be your shield.
For your work and your art, Proverbs 16:3 gives a clear path, commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. Continue to offer what you create to Him, ask Him to open the right doors and close the wrong ones, and trust Him for fruitfulness in His timing and for the resources you need to do what He has called you to do.
For your desire for a husband, it is good to bring that to the Lord. Marriage as revealed in Scripture is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and intimacy belongs within that covenant. If it is His will to bring a husband into your life, pray that He would make that clear and guide you both, and that He would remove any hindrance that is not of Him. And if there is a season of waiting, pray that He would use it to establish you more deeply in Him and in stable employment and calling, believing the promise in Isaiah 61:7 that He gives a double portion in place of shame and restores what has been lost.
I pray now that the Lord would establish you, grant you peace, provide for your needs, protect you from every form of evil, and lead you step by step into wholeness. May you know the power of the blood of Jesus and the victory of your testimony, as Revelation 12:11 declares that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. May the Lord keep you, heal you in body, mind and spirit according to His perfect will, and cause you to walk in the freedom Christ has already secured for you. In Jesus name, amen.
It is important to remember that healing and restoration with the Lord often happen in different ways. In the Gospels there is an account where Jesus healed a blind man gradually, first partially and then fully, and it is the only recorded miracle of that kind. That shows us that God does not always work instantly. Sometimes His healing is immediate, sometimes it comes through a process over time, and sometimes it works through the natural processes He has built into our bodies and minds. All healing is from Him, whether it is physical, emotional, or mental. He can heal memories and wounds and scars on the inside even as He works on the outside. The prophet Isaiah foretold that He would bear our infirmities and sicknesses, and Matthew connects that prophecy to the healing ministry of Jesus, which includes both spiritual and physical restoration.
We also do not fully understand why some are healed quickly and others walk through a longer process, and why some prayers for healing are answered differently than we expect. Even the apostle Paul prayed repeatedly about his thorn in the flesh and the Lord chose not to remove it. This teaches us not to assume that a lack of immediate deliverance or healing means there is hidden sin or a lack of faith. Those are unbiblical and hurtful ideas that are like the counsel of Job's comforters. God is sovereign, He loves you, and He is in the business of restoration, bringing beauty out of what sin and brokenness have damaged.
In light of that, I join you in asking the Lord to complete His work of deliverance from past associations that were not of Him, and to break any lingering oppression or pattern of thinking that came from that season. I pray that He will surround you with faithful people who will walk with you in truth and love and help you grow in stability and maturity in Christ.
Concerning your extended family members and the very serious rumors you mentioned, it is right to pray for truth to come to light and for the protection of any who may be vulnerable. God sees what is hidden and He is just. Rather than living in suspicion, pray that if there is any actual wrongdoing it would be exposed through proper and lawful means and that those who might be harmed would be rescued and protected. At the same time ask the Lord to guard your own heart from fear and from envy or accusation, trusting the promise in Isaiah 54:17 that no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and resting in His ability to be your shield.
For your work and your art, Proverbs 16:3 gives a clear path, commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established. Continue to offer what you create to Him, ask Him to open the right doors and close the wrong ones, and trust Him for fruitfulness in His timing and for the resources you need to do what He has called you to do.
For your desire for a husband, it is good to bring that to the Lord. Marriage as revealed in Scripture is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, and intimacy belongs within that covenant. If it is His will to bring a husband into your life, pray that He would make that clear and guide you both, and that He would remove any hindrance that is not of Him. And if there is a season of waiting, pray that He would use it to establish you more deeply in Him and in stable employment and calling, believing the promise in Isaiah 61:7 that He gives a double portion in place of shame and restores what has been lost.
I pray now that the Lord would establish you, grant you peace, provide for your needs, protect you from every form of evil, and lead you step by step into wholeness. May you know the power of the blood of Jesus and the victory of your testimony, as Revelation 12:11 declares that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. May the Lord keep you, heal you in body, mind and spirit according to His perfect will, and cause you to walk in the freedom Christ has already secured for you. In Jesus name, amen.
